Various agents consisting of organopolysiloxanes and silicone compound compositions have been proposed in attempts to impart pliability, smoothness, softness, slickness and other characteristics to fiber materials.
For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,536,422 and 4,618,512 disclose a process, which comprises applying formaldehyde addition products with urea, cyclic urea, carbamate esters or with other amides as crosslinking agents to impart smooth-dry and flame retardant properties to synthetic-cellulose blend fabrics. However, these fabric solutions are limited by continuously releasing the formaldehyde vapor.
Examples of organo-functional silicone emulsions useful in the treatment of substrates, such as textiles, that are prepared by ring opening emulsion polymerization of organo-functional cocyclic siloxane can be found in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,753,751 and 6,201,109 along with EP 0838547A2, JP 2001031766A, EP1069129A2, and WO2002092660A2.
Polymerized silicone fluids with hydroxy-terminated silicone fluid, ethoxy- or methoxy-terminated functional silane in a surfactant medium for use as fabric softeners and the like are disclosed in e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 6,525,130.
Organofunctional silicone emulsions have been produced by copolymerization of organofunctional group-containing ethylenically unsaturated monomers, see for example EP191237(A1); EP191237(B1); U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,584,337, 6,069,191, 5,516,868, 3,729,444, 2,965,593, and optionally with hydrolyzable silane monomers as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,863,985 and U.S. published Patent Application No. 2003/0114583A1.
Fiber treating compositions that contain at least 2 or 3 types of organofunctional siloxanes, including an amino-functional siloxane, an epoxy-functional siloxane, and a carboxyl-functional siloxane are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,311,626 and 4,366,001. The compositions disclosed in these patents partially crosslink on the surface of fabric after curing at high temperature.
Furthermore, partially cross-linked silicones with high molecular weight present problems in emulsification and stability. Also, linear organo-functional silicone emulsion do not provide enhanced smoothness or softness performance when used as textile finish. Emulsion systems containing amino silicone and epoxy silicone can provide partially cross-linked silicones on fabric surface after curing at high temperature, but the lifetime of the emulsion mixtures is relatively short.
The present invention fulfills the need for structured silicone emulsions that are easily and readily prepared which posses increased stability and exert enhances smoothness and softness to various materials.